The Second Life of a Discarded Heiress

With Vester's help, everything started to fall into place.

A few nights later, Darius Archer had to step out for an evening event-finally, the perfect window to put their plan into action.

To assist them, Vester volunteered to attend the gala with Darius, keeping him out

of the way.

That evening, as soon as Citrine and Sebastian received Vester's signal, they moved without hesitation.

Sebastian had already hacked into the estate's security system earlier that morning, disabling every camera on the premises. Wasting no time, they hurried upstairs.

Sebastian had also cracked the code to the locked door in advance, so getting inside was a breeze.

But once they entered, both of them froze.

Across the room, two armed guards stood on patrol. Citrine recognized their uniforms immediately-they matched those worn by the soldiers from Mirage Cay.

Their eyes met in a split second of silent understanding, and they pressed themselves flat against the wall, reacting instinctively.

Citrine turned her head to whisper to Sebastian, "They're armed. You can still back out now."

Sebastian paused, then broke into a grin. "Do you really think I'm the kind to run when things get tough?"

Citrine didn't answer, her gaze locked coldly on the two guards.

"I'll count down from three. On one, we move."

"Understood." Sebastian didn't hesitate for an instant.

Citrine counted under her breath. As she whispered “one,” both she and Sebastian somersaulted across the floor, closing in on the guards.

raised their guns, but before they could fire, Citrine and Sebastian struck in perfect unison, knocking the weapons out of their

a gun, pressing the muzzles to the guards' backs, and

the safe," Sebastian ordered, voice

say!" The guards,

they led Citrine and Sebastian behind a bookshelf. One of the guards knelt down and retrieved a remote control from a hidden gap at the base. With a soft click, a concealed

exchanged a glance—a glimmer of triumph flashing in their

was a secret study. The safe was

got ten minutes. I'll handle things here-go work on the safe," Citrine said, taking the gun from Sebastian and pressing it into the

second counted,

a look at

they

immediately began hacking into the manufacturer's headquarters,

and asked softly, "How's it going? Can you

fingers flying

minutes ticked by. Only

were stretched

phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen-it was a message from

Darius Archer is on his

replied with one hand, "Arrange

her phone back into her pocket just as—click—the safe popped

eyes lit up. "Hurry, Archer's already on his way home.

gathered all the files from

the guards at

they reached the ground floor, the sound of a car engine

face fell. "Damn, Archer's

Sebastian's expression grew tense.

rear exit and said urgently,

they turned and moved quickly in